VITAMIN B12 AND FOLIC ACID DEFICIENCY IN PATIENTS WITH RECURRENT APHTHOUS STOMATITIS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common painful oral
mucosal conditions seen among patients. This study aimed to compare the vitamin B12 and folate intake
in RAS-positive patients with the control group.
Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 184 patients who were referred to Taleghani
Hospital (Urmia, Iran) participated in the study. Vitamin B12 and folate serum levels were measured
using Vitamin B12 Assay Kit (Siemens Healthineers Active-B12 (AB12) assay offered on the Atellica®
IM Analyzer and ADVIA Centaur® CP), then oral examination of patients were taken to rule out the
prevalence of RAS between participants. The serum level of vitamin B12 and folate were compared
between patients with RAS and control group. The data were analyzed by IBM SPSS 20.0 (Chicago,
USA).
Results: The study subjects had significantly lower daily intake of vitamin B12 (p < 0.0001) as compared
to the controls. No significant differences were observed with regard to folate intake between two groups
(p = 0.579).
Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that patients with RAS are more likely to have lower dietary
intakes of vitamin B12 than the control group, but no difference was observed between two groups
concerning the folate intake. These findings suggest that consuming sufficient amounts of Vitamin B12
may be a useful strategy to reduce the number and/or duration of RAS episodes